ROMEO Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great, and in such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy. MERCUTIO That’s as much as to say, such as case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams. ROMEO Meaning to cur’sy. MERCUTIO Thou hast most kindly hit it. ROMEO A most courteous […]
Continue ReadingHere’s Romeo! (2.4.32-41)
Enter ROMEO. BENVOLIO Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. MERCUTIO Without his roe, like a dried herring: O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in. Laura to his lady was a kitchen wench (marry, she had a better love to berhyme her), Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a […]
Continue ReadingCutting the gallants down to size (2.4.25-31)
MERCUTIO The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting phantasimes, these new tuners of accent! ‘By Jesu, a very good blade! a very tall man! a very good whore!’ Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandsire, that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these pardon-me’s, who stand so much on […]
Continue ReadingPrince of Catz (2.4.13-24)
MERCUTIO Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead, stabbed with a white wench’s black eye, run through the ear with a love-song, the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt? BENVOLIO Why, what is Tybalt? MERCUTIO More than Prince of Cats. O, he’s […]
Continue ReadingWhere’s Romeo? (again…) (2.4.1-12)
[2.4] Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO MERCUTIO Where the dev’l should this Romeo be? Came he not home tonight? BENVOLIO Not to his father’s, I spoke with his man. MERCUTIO Why, that same pale hard-hearted wretch, that Rosaline, Torments him so, that he will sure run mad. BENVOLIO Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet, Hath […]
Continue ReadingWisely and slow? (2.3.81-94)
ROMEO Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline. FRIAR For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. ROMEO And bad’st me bury love. FRIAR Not in a grave, To lay one in, another out to have. ROMEO I pray thee chide me not. Her I love now Doth grace for grace and love for […]
Continue ReadingHoly Saint Francis! (and other mild oaths) – you what? (2.3.65-80)
FRIAR Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. Jesu Maria, what a deal of brine Hath washed thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline! How […]
Continue ReadingMarry us, NOW (2.3.57-64)
ROMEO Then plainly know, my heart’s dear love is set On the fair daughter of rich Capulet; As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine, And all combined, save what thou must combine By holy marriage. When and where and how We met, we wooed, and made exchange […]
Continue ReadingRiddling Romeo (2.3.49-56)
ROMEO I have been feasting with mine enemy, Where on a sudden one hath wounded me That’s by me wounded; both our remedies Within thy help and holy physic lies. I bear no hatred, blessèd man; for lo, My intercession likewise steads my foe. FRIAR Be plain, good son, and […]
Continue ReadingRosaline? Who’s Rosaline? (2.3.39-48)
FRIAR Therefore thy earliness doth me assure Thou art uproused with with some distemp’rature; Or if not so, then here I hit it right, Our Romeo hath not been in bed tonight. ROMEO That last is true, the sweeter rest was mine. FRIAR God pardon sin! wast thou with Rosaline? ROMEO With […]
Continue Reading